By CALVIN CORDOVA
CEBU CITY— Filipino stickfighters expectedly stamped their class and won the overall title in the recent 16th World Eskrima Kali Arnis Federation (WEKAF) Championships in runaway fashion at the Mandaue City Cultural and Sports Complex.
With some foreign participants failing to compete due to travel issues, the Philippine team collected 141 golds – the country’s biggest haul in the 33-year history of WEKAF.
In all, the Filipinos raked in a whopping 418 medals that included139 silvers and 138 bronzes.
Annjeanette Brilliantes, Jude Oliver Marie Rodriquez, Kate Iccy Solis, Anthony Cris Luna, Bryze Danielle Manaytay, and Dexler Bolambao spearheaded the Filipino’s productive harvest with three gold medals each.
Team USA was far a second with 21 golds, 21 silvers and 47 bronzes while South Korea wound third after collecting three golds, three silvers and nine bronzes.
Robert Williams, Kim Everett, Mary Rogers, Alex Salinas, Richard Coley, Valentin Stanev, Cooper Geldmacher, Kenneth Roiles and Doug Elkerson led the way for the Americans with two golds each.
Jinkyu Lee accounted for two of South Korea’s gold medal harvest while Seongun Byeon added one.
United Kingdom snagged three golds courtesy of Barry Littlejohn. Portugal’s lone gold was delivered by Ricardo Teixeira.
India was good for only one silver and 17 bronzes, Switzerland took one silver and one bronze, Germany had two silvers, while Brazil took a bronze.
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